


The Dragon Force Specialized Unit

by SirAjKnight



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-01-15 21:08:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21259673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SirAjKnight/pseuds/SirAjKnight
Summary: Hiccup and Astrid are best friends graduating from HighSchool, both going into the specialized unit of the DFSU. On the first mission that happened unexpectedly, a change was made, and they were thrust into a world that they didn't realize was there. They have to figure out how to face the new challenges together.





	1. The beginning

Hiccup took a deep breath as he focused, looking across the field he saw his target, moving slowly, then quickly, then slowly, constantly changing in an apparently random pattern. Of course, he knew better, there was a pattern, not that he needed to know what it was, he wouldn’t get the time to figure it out.  
Steadying himself, he let everything fade, then gently squeezed the trigger. Without a moment pause, he shifted to the next target and squeezed, first one hundred yards, then one-twenty, then one-fifty, then two hundred. Forty targets, forty rounds, forty seconds. As the last round left the barrel, he paused, and waited about seven seconds before the horn sounded, signaling that he was out of time.  
He lowered the rifle, and disengaged the magazine, before popping open the chamber to show it was clear, then set the rifle on the table beside him. He turned to his evaluators and noticed their shocked and impressed faces. He really hoped he had done well, he was the last to be evaluated, and they hadn’t been allowed to watch each other.  
Sergeant Woodman, marksman in charge of the training for the Berk Armed Forces, stepped up while looking at a screen, then looked up and nodded at Hiccup, “Impressive Haddock, honestly, I wish you were joining up, we could use a marksman of your level, tell me, have you been shooting long?”  
Hiccup shook his head, “Only this year sir, I took this class to get some experience with what the military would go through. To better understand what the troops go through to keep us safe.”  
The Sergeant nodded, “Very impressive indeed, top marks on this, did you know you hit every bulls-eye with seven seconds to spare?”  
Hiccup looked stunned, “No sir, I felt I had missed the fourth target slightly, it’s movement pattern was too erratic.”  
The Sergeant frowned, then looked at his screen, looked at the fourth target, and indeed, the bullet had hit just slightly to the left of dead center, still a bulls-eye, but slightly off from perfect, “Haddock, seriously, you have done this before.”  
Hiccup shook his head nervously, “No sir.”  
The Sergeant shook his head in disbelief, “Alright, well, anyway, you will get your scores sent to you in the mail, but as for the course, you passed with 100% completion. I understand that you are taking this course for the Dragon Force specialized unit, but if you ever got tired of that, you would have a position in the military at any time.”  
Hiccup nodded, “Thank you sir, what limitations do I have on my qualification? I need to know so that I can tell my superiors when I get singed in.”  
Woodman chuckled, and wrote down on a piece of paper, then folded it and too a piece of wax and sealed it shut, “Hand this to them when asked. It’s required for your level of qualification.”  
Hiccup took the paper and pocketed it, nodding. “Is there anything else I need to do sir?”  
The Sergeant shook his head, “No Haddock, it was a pleasure to train you for this last couple months. Hope to see you again someday.”  
Hiccup shook the sergeant’s hand and turned before leaving the firing range. Happy to be done with a grueling eight weeks. And ready to start in the next stage of his training, dragons.  
Sergeant Woodman watched the boy leave the firing range, and felt a presence behind him, he didn’t turn around, that would have been a mistake, he already knew who was behind him, and that she didn’t like being seen in bright light. “Do you believe me now?” He asked quietly, in a growling voice and language that sounded anything but human.  
The woman responded in the same growling language he had spoken in, “I do, and I see why the elders have taken such a liking to him as well. It seems it is time for me to speak with this one.”  
Woodman nodded in understanding, “What about the other?”  
There was a moment of silence, “Not quiet the same, though, I think they may balance each other, who knows, they may be just who we have been looking for.”  
Woodman had a shiver run down his spine, the excitement that they could have finally found their salvation, it was overwhelming. “I taught him everything I could, including getting rid of that scrawny frame he came here with, honestly, he could probably take me on even now.”  
“What classification do you give him boy?” The woman asked.  
Woodman chuckled, “For the first time in five hundred years, I gave a Strike, personally, I believe either Ice Wraith, or Triple Strike.”  
There was a moment, the a thoughtful hmm “interesting, we shall see.”


	2. Chapter 2

Hiccup took his bike home, pedaling like there was no tomorrow, which wasn’t true, he PASSED! And he was finally ready to take on dragon training. The Dragon Force unit was a specialized unit branched off the military that were not only classified the elite, but were taught and trained in how to train, care for, and even RIDE dragons!  
Not that training dragons was new to him, in fact, unknown to all but a handful of people, he had been a licensed dragon trainer since he was nine. Yep, he had been training dragons since he was able to crawl, and passed the adult level training course, typically there were multiple age restrictions, 18 if you took a special course in Highschool, and 21 if you only started training afterwards. But at nine years old, Hiccup had done something unthinkable, and it was the greatest moment of his life, not because of the dragons, but because of what he got from the encounter.   
Flashback  
Hiccup was walking with his father back from school, it was a normal day, he was teased for being a shrimp, he was incredibly small, especially since he had a mountain of a man for a dad. The man was six foot nine, three hundred pounds, and every once of that was in muscle. Thick red hair that he kept short and a full beard that was neatly trimmed, he had to be presentable at the chief of police.   
Hiccup was perfectly opposite, he had no visible muscle, even in comparison to kids his age, he was shorter than most of his class, and seemed to stumble over his own feet more than walk. He was also a genius, or at the very least incredibly smart. It didn’t matter what you put in front of him, give him a chance and he would learn it somehow, he absorbed the words in a textbook like a sponge, memorized facts the first time he heard them, and could sort through all the information in an instant to come up with a plan. Of course, no one but his teachers saw this, not even his father, until today that is.   
They were almost home, only a block further and they would get home and they would be able to eat and watch a movie as his father promised. When they heard the scream. There were many voices in the scream, and both Haddock men reacted without a word or seconds waste.   
They dashed down the street towards the sound and almost stopped when a roar sounded, now, dragons were common around Berk and the Archipelago, so wild dragon attacks weren’t uncommon, but that roar, it was unfamiliar to both Haddock men, and sounded larger than your average Nightmare, or even Rumblehorn. Both of them ran faster, Stoick, obviously, made it there first, finding a something he wasn’t expecting at all, it wasn’t one dragon, but half a dozen! And they weren’t your average dragon, they were a rarely seen breed, called Triple Strike, each dragon had three scorpion like tails, each with a different venom. A paralyzer, a Hallucinogen, and one that burned like fire inside the veins. Any of the three would make it impossible for someone to escape, and all three together would mean instant death. Even to some dragons.   
Stoick went right into chief mode and started getting people back away from the dragons that seemed to be half in attack mode, half unsure of what all was happening. It took Stoick less than two minutes to get things in order and everyone behind a line that would ensure that he was the first target, he was massive.  
But his blood ran cold when he turned to the street and saw something he missed. There was a girl, probably the same age as Hiccup, sitting in the middle of the road, right in front of the biggest of the six dragons. She looked absolutely frozen in fear as the dragon inched slowly towards her, staring right at her. He tried to think of what to do, anything that could get the girl out of there before the dragons attacked.   
Apparently, the girl was finally noticed because a woman in the crowed yelled out, “ASTRID!” Mrs. Hofferson, Stoick placed, now knowing who the girl was, but he didn’t have time to process it when a copper blur flashed past him, and right into the street. Stoick froze, he knew without seeing what had happened, and was about to call out to his son when he saw him stop right in front of the girl, taking in a deep breath.  
What came from his son was something he would never be able to quite believe, despite being right there, a terrible, terrifying roar, that sounded exactly like the demon of the night that was a boogieman story for the citizens of Berk, it was louder than the tiny nine year old should have been able to make, and it caused even the six triple strike dragons to back away in fear.   
There was a pause, but Hiccup raised his hand, then pointed, back to the forest, then roared again, not quite as loud, or as long, then pointed again, growling lowly, still loud and clear enough that Stoick could hear it. Then the dragons shocked everyone, they whimpered, and RAN. Dashing or flying into the woods faster than Stoick had ever seen a dragon move.   
There was silence in the street, no one dared move, either because of fear of attracting the dragons back, or in confusion of what in the world just happened. But Hiccup, he didn’t seem phased at all, he just turned around, a worried look on his face and got down on his knees in front of the girl, “Astrid, are you okay?”  
The girl didn’t move for a minute, still seeming to be frozen in fear, before jumping forward and hugging Hiccup, tackling him to the ground, and started crying. Hiccup, as small as he was, was far stronger than he looked, and sat up, hugging the girl close, and whispering to her, what he was saying Stoick couldn’t hear, but it seemed to be working, as the girl finally settled down slightly, and pulled away, “Thank you.” She said quickly, before her mother finally broke out of her trance and ran to get her daughter.   
She seemed weary of Hiccup, and pulled her daughter away from him, and went home, just as everyone else went home, seeming to look at Hiccup with a mixture of fear, and surprise. Stoick went to his son, giving him a hard look.   
Hiccup looked up, then hung his head, “I’m sorry dad, I know you said not to get into the middle like that, but I just couldn’t let them hurt her, I know her, she is kind, doesn’t pick on me at school. I’m sorry…”  
Stoick’s eyes softened, “Yes, I did tell you not to get into the middle of a dangerous situation Hiccup, but I think I gave you one valid excuse to do so, do you remember what that is?”  
Hiccup looked up, thought for a moment, before stating, “When no other option is available, and being stupid and reckless is the only way to save someone’s life.”  
Stoick wondered if that was how he worded it, then figured, with his sons memory, it probably was, so he smiled, “couldn’t have said it better myself, I think that you have something to explain to me about that roar though.”  
Hiccup grinned, “I figured it might help, the Nightfury is the most feared dragon that wasn’t an alpha class, so, if I could learn to make it’s roar, then I would be the most feared trainer. It was the only thing I could think of when facing a triple strike.”  
Stoick nodded, “That was incredibly well done son, I think I need to make a request to get you more training.”  
Hiccup’s smile faded, “But I can’t, the more advanced training is only available to licensed trainers, and I can’t do that till I’m eighteen.”  
Stoick thought for a moment, then nodded to him, “Let me see what I can do.”  
Hiccup smiled again but not as brightly, before looking at the houses of the other people. “They are all afraid of me now.”  
Stoick sighed, he had seen that too, “Hiccup, the people of Berk are a great people, but they can be thick headed, and not understand something that has never been done before, you, a nine year old squirt,” He poked Hiccup, getting him to squirm and giggle, “Faced off six of some of the most feared dragons, and terrified them.” He smiled at his son, “And not everyone was scared.”  
Hiccup rolled his eyes, “You don’t count dad.”  
Stoick laughed, “Boy, I was terrified,” Causing Hiccup looking at his father with wide shocked eyes. “I’m talking about the girl, Astrid, if she was scared of you, she never would have hugged you.”  
Hiccup’s surprised turned into a thoughtfulness. Before sighing, then yawning, “She might be scared of me in the morning, but at least she is alive, can we go home, I’m sleepy.”  
Stoick smiled warmly and picked up his boy and carried him home. Even the short walk home made the little dragon tamer fall asleep, and the man put him to bed. Them made a call to start the process, his son would have that exception if he had to pull every favor he had to pull it off.  
Flashback end  
Stoick apparently hadn’t had to pull much, in fact the whole event had already gotten out, and as he was talking to someone in the bureau of dragon relations, his conversation was apparently overheard and had been in the office the next day getting this set up for Hiccup to take the test.   
Two weeks later, Hiccup was a fully licensed dragon trainer and able to get access to all the training the bureau had to offer. Which he had finished but the age of eleven.   
But that was not the real thing that Hiccup got from that ordeal. No, what he would always be grateful for was the fact that the next morning, despite all the teasing she got for doing so, Astrid sat next to him in school. To this day to two of them were best friends, she being his only friend, as everyone else just wanted to pick on him. These last eight weeks had been an elective training, preparing those who signed up for the Dragon Force Training Program. Most students that knew they wanted to go into the DFSU took it because it made the actual training program shorter, and gave them pre qualifications, meaning they could jump into dragon training directly after graduating Highschool.   
After pedaling for a good fifteen minutes, he pulled into his apartment complex and parked his bike in his personal slot, before locking it and running to his apartment. Once inside he flipped open his phone and quickly shot Astrid a message.   
Hiccup: Hey! I passed! 100% completion!  
Golden Valkyrie: So did I! He even gave me this note saying that I would need to give it in for qualification. How did you do?  
Hiccup: Honestly, I don’t really know, though in the range I hit the bulls eyes, but I was off on the forth target, I hope that doesn’t put my score down to far.   
Golden Valkyrie: Oh come ON! You have the best aim out of all of the students Hic! Hiccup cringed, he knew she was right, but still. Did they give you a note?  
Hiccup: Yeah, I don’t know what it means, he didn’t tell me my limitations, I’m worried that there are a lot of them.  
There was a long gap of time, before she answered back this time, making Hiccup frown, that wasn’t good. It meant one of two things, she fell asleep, it was 4 o’clock in the afternoon, not likely, or her mother was freaking out over DFSU again.   
Golden Valkyrie: UGH!!! And it was her mother.  
Hiccup: Haten on your carrier, or your choice in friends again? He asked, knowing that ever since that day he was anything but Ingrid Hofferson’s favorite person.   
Golden Valkyrie: BOTH!   
Hiccup sighed, then had a thought, and grinned, it wouldn’t win him any favors with her mother, but it would get Astrid out of a yelling session she just didn’t need today. He pulled himself up off the couch, and went to his work room, he lived on his own ever since his father died last year. Cancer, lung cancer if you believe it, he never smoked, never did drugs, but he got lung cancer from secondhand smoking from Hiccup’s Uncle Spitelout, yes, his name was ACTUALLY Spitelout, something about traditional Viking names.   
After getting to his work space, he found his burner phone, switched on the voice changer that he had applied to it years ago, you might wonder why a kid in high school would need a voice changer on a burner phone, the answer, is Hiccup had many bullies, and was the son of the Chief of Police, meaning he actually had enemies.   
But right now, he could get his only friend out of trouble for the time being. He dialed Astrid’s number, this number was on her phone as ‘Dragon Tamer’ and would work perfectly for this. After a couple rings, it clicked and Astrid’s voice came over in a questioning tone, “Hello?”  
Hiccup could hear in the background her mother almost scream, “I’m talking to you young lady hang up the phone this instant!”  
Hiccup held in a chuckle, to keep both of them from starting to laugh, “Hello, I am calling for an Astrid Hofferson.”  
“This is she,” Astrid said, trying to remain questioning.   
“I’m calling in reference to registration for the DFSU, we are sorry to pull you away right after the qualification test, but we need you to come in to finish out some information that was missed, Would you be able to come down to he office so that we can get this taken care of before the end of the day?” Hiccup kept everything as professional as he could, making sure that if Ingrid or Eret, Astrid’s older brother, heard any of it, it would sound legit.   
“Oh!” Astrid reacted, surprised for real and making sure to keep things acted to convince he mother that she didn’t know it wasn’t the DFSU. “Of course, I’ll come get it taken care of right away, be there in thirty minutes.”  
“Thank you, Astrid, the standard offices will be fine,” With that he heard Astrid acknowledge then hang up the phone. Ten minutes later, there was a knock on his door, then it opened and he watched Astrid walk in and plop down on his couch.  
“Thank you for that Hiccup,” She said with a sigh, “Though, I still can’t believe how you get away with that.”  
Hiccup shrugged from his seat in his favorite chair, “Just lucky I guess, I have to be lucky in something, I’m the runt that gets picked on day after day, SOMETHING has to go right for me.”  
Astrid looked up at him, a pout on her face, “What, I don’t count?”  
Hiccup laughed at the adorable look on her face. Then shook his head, “Nope, definitely not, I mean come on, I have a constant bruise on my shoulder from all the times you punch me!” He grinned, and Astrid rolled her eyes, then dropped back on the couch. Hiccup chuckled again, then leaned back in his chair, “So, we start Dragon Training tomorrow.”   
Astrid popped up excited, “I know! It’s so awesome. I finally get to move out, live in the dorms and be away form my mother.”  
Hiccup nodded, he understood, ever since that even all those years ago her mother had been overprotective of her, keeping her in after dark, only letting her go with friends if she was present. Of course, this didn’t stop the two of them from ‘escaping’ from her room and spending ours in the woods, where Hiccup had trained her in training dragons. Starting with Terrible Terrors, and all the smaller dragons first. By the time they were sixteen, she was ready to take the dragon training licensing test, and when she took it when she turned eighteen, she passed with flying colors. The two of them were the only two to have their licenses already, the others from their school would have to get them later.   
“We will finally get to do something to help the dragons,” Hiccup said. While the dragons were an accepted part of life, there were sill many things not known about them, many breeds that only the barest of information, such as the most feared dragon alive, the Nightfury. So little was known about it, like the typical size, breeding habits, food preferences, strength, shot limit, the list goes on. The only thing we really knew about it, was that it was the fastest dragon in existence, and it was pure black aside from the eyes. Some lucky, or unlucky as some might say, person had been able to see one once, before it destroyed his home.   
Of course, that didn’t stop Hiccup from wanting to meet one, he even wanted to meet the fabled Alpha dragons. Ones so big that they made the Timberjack look tiny. It was his dream to find a nest controlled by an Alpha to be able to see dragons where they were truly at home.   
Astrid grinned, “And we get to learn so much, you’re the leading expert on dragons on Berk, and they have books that even you are dying to see.”  
She was right, they had an extensive library that held generations of information about dragons, he couldn't wait to delve into their hidden secrets that held information only the DFSU were allowed access to.   
“When do you need to get back to your mother?” Hiccup asked.  
Astrid looked thoughtful, “I have time for a movie, no information on how long it should take, and unless she comes with me tomorrow, she will never be the wiser.”  
Hiccup chuckled and popped in one of their favorites, Princess Bride, single best movie of all time. An hour and a half later, Astrid left, went home and straight to bed, Hiccup also went to bed, looking at a picture of his parents beside his bed, “I’m almost their guys, I hope you’re proud of me.”


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning hadn’t come fast enough, we found the group of kids from the school standing ready at the doors waiting to sign in and start training. Hiccup was standing to the side, looking over the group of graduates that had joined him and Astrid in this new leg of life.  
First there was Snotlout Jorgenson, his cousin, and again, yes that was his real name. He was quarterback for Berk High football team, and built to match, six foot two and 250 pounds. Then we have Justin ‘Fishlegs’ Ingerman, the nickname came from his large body and abnormally small legs, the don’t let that fool you, the man was a defensive lineman, and he could NOT be moved. Six foot seven, 300 pounds, and built like a tank. Then you have the twins, Rachel, and Timothy Thorston, Or Ruff and Tuff as they like to call themselves. Of course, you would think they were Loki spawn with the trouble they could cause, even if they were lanky, and rather ugly. In addition to them you got Dagur and Heather Zerk, they were not twins, but Dagur had been held back three grades and never went anywhere without his sister. He was built like a runner, and she was slim, but Hiccup knew from experience that she could hit, HARD. Last was a girl that had only recently transferred, from Boggler Island, Camelia Bogertson. She and Astrid were similar, blond hair, blue eyes, but she was a little taller, and quite a bit bigger.   
Then you had Astrid and Hiccup, bringing the total to nine students joining from Berk High, and who knew how many from other islands in the Archipelago. Now normally, all his bullies in one place, all of them really, would be what was putting him on edge, but the issue was that Astrid’s mom had INSISTED on bringing her. Astrid had panicked and told Hiccup, and he wasn’t sure how to answer the question if it came up. He just hopped they could figure it out, because impersonating the DFSU was as bad as a police officer.   
They all checked in, and Hiccup got up slightly before Astrid, “Name?” The clerk asked.  
“Henry Hiccup Haddock,” Hiccup answered easily.  
“Completion form,” She asked, and he handed it to her, she glanced it over, “Qualification level?” Hiccup pulled out the note, and handed it to her, making her raise her eyebrows. And Snot snicker next to him.  
“Check it out guys, Hiccup did so bad he had to bring a note just to explain how badly he did,” Hiccup grit his teeth, and was about to respond, when another voice spoke up.  
“Actually Jorgenson,” Sergeant Woodman’s voice said, “The signed note was in case I could not be here, when a certain level of qualification is reached, it requires sighed consent from a military officer of Sergeant or above to approve, since the qualification allows the user to handle and operate weapons that are only issued and used by authorize military personnel.” Hiccup looked at the Sergeant with wide eyes, did he really do that well?  
He turned to the lady who was printing out his ID card, “Here you go Mr. Haddock, Class Strike qualification, with level three clearance, welcome to the DFSU.” She smiled at him. He just took his badge, and stepped to the side, so that Astrid could get hers.  
He was looking at his ID in something akin to awe, and he missed most of the interaction between Astrid and the clerk, until he heard her say, “Sorry, it seems we don’t have your middle name on file, would you be able to provide it?”  
Astrid paled and Hiccup tensed, Ingrid, frowned, “So you had her here for almost two hours yesterday and you still forgot something?”  
The woman turned to Ingrid, “I don’t know what you mean, Astrid wasn’t here yesterday.”  
Ingrid turned to Astrid glaring at her daughter, “Care to explain?”  
Hiccup was frantically trying to come up with something, anything to explain this, but Sergeant Woodman shocked him by speaking up, “I apologize Mrs. Hofferson, that was my mistake, I knew I have forgotten to include something in from my report from yesterday’s meeting. Her middle name is Ingrid, Susan.” The woman nodded and typed in the information, the rest went through smoothly. She ended up having the same Class qualification, and clearance level as Hiccup, which were both higher than anyone else that had gone through the training. And apparently even the idiots could notice it. “Hey,” Dagur said with anger, “What gives, they both had higher clearance than any of us!”  
Again, the Sergeant came to our rescue, “That is because they both met the requirements for it. The both had the highest marks on the physical abilities…”  
“Bullshit!” Snotlout snapped, “I can lift four times what either of them can lift!”  
Sergeant Woodman turned his gaze to Snotlout, “I Should remind you Jorgenson, that I am a Sergeant in the Berkian Armed Forces, do NOT interrupt me while I am speaking again without expecting dire consequences.” Snotlout paled, remembering the punishments he had gotten during ‘boot camp’ and nodded. “As I was saying, they both had the highest marks on physical abilities over all, the highest test scores on both regular and dragon knowledge, bot are already dragon trainer, rider, tamer, and caregiver licensed, and their marks in the firing range and understanding of the weapon safety were miles ahead off all of you aside from Ingerman, who is only one classification lower, Stoke. As for access levels, they will also be requiring that level for the missions that they are already being prepared for.”  
“They already have a mission? They haven’t even been through Dragon Training!” Tuff said in shock.   
The Sergeant rolled his eyes, “Doesn’t concern you, Hofferson, Haddock, come with me. I will show you to the briefing room.”  
Astrid and Hiccup, both with an expression of shock, followed behind him, leaving the other teens in the entrance to be guided to where they need to go. After moving into a hall that had swinging doors, Hiccup spoke up, “I have to ask, why?”  
The Sergeant chuckled, “You’ll have to be more specific Haddock.”  
“Okay…” Hiccup said, “I guess everything, why did you cover for Astrid? Why do we have a mission? Why are you here? Any and all of the above?”  
The Sergeant turned to him and smiled, “First, I am here because I am actually a member of the DFSU, a retired Sergeant, that works directly for the DFSU and provides firearm and physical training and evaluations for all members. I covered for Astrid, because it was obvious to me that you knew about it, and from your character there would have to be good reason for you to need to cover for her, so I did it for you. And for the mission, there is a mission that is considered routine for our normal members, but would be perfect to test the two of you on your abilities as they currently are, there is virtually no danger for the two most promising dragon trainers, and since we are slightly short handed, we figured we would send you both out to deal with this. We also noticed in training that the two of you worked very well together as a team, so yet another reason to put the two of you on this mission.”  
As they walked down the hall, following the Sergeant, they looked at each other, trying to figure out just what they could be doing already. It was only a minute later they stepped through a door into a conference room that already had a couple of other people in it. All of them looked ancient, especially the lady that was at the end of the table, sitting with her hands folded in front of her on the table. She was short, and had white hair that was braided behind her, her entire body was hidden by the table itself. The other people in the room, were standing, and had been talking quietly until they entered the room. Now they were looking at the newcomers, and had old eyes staring directly at them.   
Each of them really had no defining features, blackish or brown hair, braided behind them, one male, two females, and all wore long black robes. After a moment of looking over Hiccup and Astrid, they moved to sit down at the table, the male at the small woman’s left, and the two women to her right.   
“Sorry for the wait elders, I have here Haddock and Hofferson as requested,” The Sergeant said before, bowing? That puzzled the two teens, but they left it alone.  
There was a silence before the small woman gestured to the man, and he spoke, “Please, take a seat,” he said in a calm, yet strong voice that they didn’t expect from a man that was obviously old as he was. Hiccup and Astrid sat down in a couple of the chairs at the end of the table closest to them.   
There was a brief silence, before the small woman waved one of her hands again, and one of the women spoke. “Thank you for coming so soon after arriving, but we feel, given both of your files, that this is the perfect way to get your feet wet into the life you have become a part of. The mission is simple, but lengthy, it will test a few things, survival skills, dragon knowledge, and a few other things, including how well the two of you work without the assistance of anyone else.”  
The man stood up and laid a folder in front of them, and returned to his seat before the woman continued, “There is an island about a two hour flight east of Berk, it is home to a large amount of dragons, a few hundred or so. The island itself is only about ten kilometers across either direction, and it is mainly covered in plant life, though the north side does have a large hill that has multiple caves that are used as dens for a variety of dragons. Every two months, we rotate out the gourd team we have posted out there. They do two things, keep an eye out for any poachers, or dragon trappers, and help care for the dragons that might have an injury from any human made traps or devices, this island is known as a home to come to and heal.”  
The man pointed to the folder, “In there you will find a map of the island, as well of a list of the known species of dragons that regularly visit or keep a steady home at the island. You will also find a list of the supplies we recommend packing from the kitchens, and supply closet. Sergeant Woodman will show you to the supplies, and provide you with a couple sets of warmer clothes, and camping gear, we do not have a permanent dwelling there, as we want to keep the island as natural as we can, so we se tents. You will take this next two month rotation.”  
Hiccup and Astrid were stunned, really, who could blame them? They were brand knew, not even introduced, and they were being given a mission to do, without supervision, that was to protect and care for an island made for wounded or tired dragons. Forget that it was routine, this was their dream come true! But Hiccup was ever a relist, “Are you sure you want two teens that barely walked in the door to do this?”  
The man looked at the smaller woman who had a smile on her face, and turned back to them, “Your question proves what we initially thought, you both know your skills, but you don’t flaunt them, you wont get over confident, which is the number two cause for failure in this field, right after incompetence. You both know more about dragons than most who have already been here for a few years, and if the Sergeant is telling the truth, which he always does, are in perfectly fit condition, and as long as you two are okay working together, with only radio contact with other humans for two months, then we are fully confident in your ability to see this through.”  
Hiccup and Astrid looked at each other, and almost laughed, Astrid turned to the elders, “I think I speak for both of us when I say that we work better together than apart, we have been best friends for years. And we face everything as a team.”  
The small woman nodded, then stood, making her shorter than she had been while sitting, and she spoke, only on word, but even not knowing the woman, they could hear the multiple meanings in her tone, “Good.” Then she turned and walked out, the other elders following her.   
The room was silent with just the three of them there, that seemed to go very quickly to Hiccup and Astrid, and Hiccup was trying to figure out was the small elder had truly meant, like she had been trying to confirm something, and their answers had been approved of. While Hiccup tried to figure it out, Astrid apparently had no issues just asking. “Who was the small one and what did she mean?” Hiccup looked at her with an amused glare, and she just shrugged at him, “What, I knew you were thinking it too.”  
The Sergeant chuckled, and thought to himself, these two are perfect, “That was Elder Gothi, current CEO of the DFSU.”  
Both teens looked at the Sergeant, “Why was she in our briefing? Why were their elders in our briefing at all?” Hiccup asked, clearly confused as to why two newbies would have the CEO in their first mission briefing.  
The Sergeant nodded, but gestured to the door, “Shall we talk while we walk?” Hiccup and Astrid nodded and followed the Sergeant through a door, into another hallway, this one seemed to be in a giant circle. As they closed the door, Sergeant Woodman took the lead and began, “Elder Gothi is not like your normal CEO, she actually attends most of the briefings, however, she rarely every says anything, she levels that up to the ones in charge of the mission, or the other elders that are almost always with her. However, this time, it was because she had taken a special interest in you two, she personally requested the two of you be sent on this mission. That she spoke to you said volumes, in fact, you both caught on that what she said, as brief as it was, probably had more meaning to it than anything else said in that room. Her approval is not easy to come by, and her vocal approval, even harder. As for what all she meant with it, you will find in time.” They arrived at a door, and the Sergeant opened it, then stepped into a pantry, “Here is the pantry, there are travel packs over there, and the room to your left is the storage closet, you will find riding cloaks, leathers, and the rest of the gear there. If you continue down the hall the way we were headed, then you will eventually reach a large double door. Your badges will unlock the door. I will be there saddling your rides; I’ll meet you there.”  
Hiccup and Astrid nodded to the man, and they both put the subject of Gothi to the back of their minds, before using the list to pack, as well as Hiccup finding some other things he figured would come in handy. Thirty minutes later, they found themselves at the door that had HANGER written above them. They shared an excited look, before Hiccup swiped his card, and the two stepped into the hanger.


	4. Chapter 4

The hanger was huge, and held at least one of just about everything that flew, jets, helicopters, hover crafts, yes, hover crafts. Not to mention the dragons. Most of the dragons were deadly nadders, bird like dragons that could shoot spines from their tails and fire as hot as the sun from their maws. But there were a few other types, gronkles, rumblehorns, and a few others. They saw Sergeant Woodman standing over with two nadders that looked a little more than antsy.   
They walked over to him, their riding leathers already on with their cloaks flowing behind them. Their packs on their backs ready o take off. When they got to the dragons, they both ignored the Sergeant’s warning to wait for a moment and simply walked up to the nadders, lifted their hands palms out, and turned their heads, almost instantly, the dragons calmed, and placed their beaks in the hands of the two teens. Who promptly started petting them gently, and lovingly.   
“I have been fighting with them for forty minutes,” Sergeant Woodman said in exasperation.   
Hiccup chuckled as he stroked along the side of the red and gold nadder he had calmed, “That was your problem, there are only two ways to calm a nervous dragon, you either show them that you trust them not to hurt you, or, you show them who is boss and that they need to calm down or else. For the most part, the trust is the best way.”   
Astrid giggled from behind her blue green and gold nadder, “Always a teacher Hiccup,” She peaked around at the Sergeant, “Don’t worry sir, I have gotten that lecture more than once.”  
The Sergeant chuckled, “Alright, these two will take you there. After arriving, let them free, we have the dragons cycle out when they start getting antsy, so let them free, we will figure out transport back when you need it.”  
Both teens nodded as they strapped their packs to the saddles of the dragons. “Remember, you two are on your own unless there is a large emergency, check in once a week, and radio in if there is a large force of trappers that comes to the island, we don’t expect it, but it can happen. Trust in each other, and trust in the dragons. We’ll see you in two months.”  
Hiccup and Astrid shook the Sergeants hand and climbed onto the dragons, both had plenty of experience riding, so in seconds they were I the air, and out of the hanger into the open sky.  
{Astrid POV}  
Flying in the open sky was one of few things that made me feel free, since I was nine years old I always felt so trapped unless I was alone with Hiccup, but flying, I always felt free and the worries of the world melted away. Hiccup and I ascended high into the air, almost touching the clouds above.   
I knew that he shared the feeling as we both leaned back, almost in unison, and closed our eyes before sighing deeply, it had been far too long since they had flown, and they had never got to ride with saddles. Astrid felt the wind flying past her, pushing in through the gaps in her riding leathers. I could feel the muscles of the nadder below me pulsing beneath her as it leisurely flapped to keep us going at a slow pace.   
We flew like this for close to ten minutes, just basking in the glow of being so high in the sky. Honestly, if I could do this all the time, I would, just up here in the sky, free, with my best friend, and a dragon beneath me.   
I opened my eyes when I heard Hiccup shout to me, “Hey, race you to those sea stacks!” He pointed in the direction we were going, and he must have seen my grin, because he shouted, “Loser makes dinner!”   
With that, we were off, I kicked hard with my heels, telling the nadder to fly faster. The wind picked up and I felt the joy of the speed. It was exhilarating, and as we picked up speed, the feeling of freedom only grew. I smirked as I was about to win, but when I looked around, I couldn’t see Hiccup at all. I heard a screech below me and looked down to see Hiccup flying beneath me and looking up at me with a grin plastered on his face as he was leaning back in the saddle, not even trying. We reached the stacks, Hiccup whooping as he arrived first, then he flew up next to me, “We haven’t been able to fly so fast before!” He called over to me.  
I tried to glare, but I couldn’t help it, the joy was still far too new. “I know,” I shouted back, “Hope you don’t mind burnt fish for dinner, you know I can’t cook to save my life!”  
Hiccup laughed, “Don’t worry milady, I shall be taking care of the food.”  
I couldn’t help it, I sighed in relief, I really didn’t like cooking, because half of what I cooked wasn’t even edible. But Hiccup, he could make water taste light a banquet. Honestly, I wasn’t sure that there was anything that Hiccup couldn’t do. I still didn’t understand why everyone teased him and picked on him, he might be the smallest, but again, he passed with higher marks than anyone at the DFSU Boot Camp, he had a 4.0 GPA. Was Valedictorian. Could cook. Was able to make just about anything he wanted with the right supplies, he made his voice changer, he didn’t by it, he made it.   
I glanced at Hiccup, if I were being honest with myself, I have had a crush on him since I was eleven years old, and pretty sure that changed to love somewhere in there. But every time I tried to tell him, the fact that we were friends stopped me, I didn’t want things to be awkward between us. But being on missions together, helping dragons, this was my dream, and I was just glad that I was finally able to achieve it.   
{Standard POV}  
The trip did indeed take two hours. They approached the island from the west, and saw the caves to the north, along with the forest covering the island. As they got close to the island, a signal flare went up on the south end, and the two teens figured they should head that direction. A couple minutes later, they landed in a small clearing that had a group of four people, and four dragons. Three women, on man, two nadders, a nightmare, and a changewing.   
“Ho there,” one of the women said, walking up to them, “Where is the rest of your group?”  
Hiccup shook his head, “Just us two.”  
The woman frowned, and looked between them, “I don’t know you two, how long have you been part of DFSU?”  
Hiccup took out his badge and showed it to her, “Today, about three hours. We were told this should be a decent entry test.”  
The woman scowled, “Gods damn it!” She shouted, “I reported in that I needed a dragon expert to replace us!”  
Hiccup slipped off his dragon, and sighed, but Astrid stepped up to the woman, “What’s the problem?”  
The woman looked Astrid’s small form up and down, they difference in size between them was absolute. The woman was at least six foot, and looked to be twice Astrid’s size, though between the two, no one would be able to say who looked more intimidating. The woman finally shook her head, “Sorry lassie, but you wouldn’t understand.”   
Astrid, “Maybe not,” She said, “But he will.” She pointed over her shoulder at Hiccup, who winced, he hated the attention, but he knew that Astrid was proud of his abilities and knowledge in the field of dragons.   
The woman rolled her eyes, “Sorry, but just because you are fresh out of the school and given a mission right away, doesn’t mean you have what I need. I recommend you two little brats go back to base and send a dragon expert so that I can get off this chunk of land.”  
“How dare you…”  
“Astrid,” Hiccup said, turning around, he knew she was going to bite back because of the ‘brats’ comment, honestly he wanted to snap too, NO ONE insulted Astrid in front of him. But he didn’t think it was worth it. She looked at him and frowned, but then saw the smirk on his face, and grinned then smiled back, and backed off. Hiccup turned to the woman. “Test me.”  
The woman frowned, “What?”  
Hiccup chuckled, “If you’re so sure that I can’t do it, test me.”  
The woman seemed to frown, and the other three in her group sat down, watching their apparent leader be challenged. Finally, she grinned, “Fine, you get a single question wrong and you go back without argument.” Hiccup nodded and crossed his arms, not saying a word. “What is the most common problem with taking care of Gronkles?”  
“Over Feeding, they end up getting sick and spewing lava all over the place.”  
“What are the least common dragons to find?” The woman asked.  
“If you include the Alpha species, Red Death, Bewilderbeast, and the Titan. If you exclude them, Titanwings, there is one for each species, and most have the trait of having bone white, or ebony scales, they can either be larger or smaller than the rest of the species depending on the dragon.”  
The woman blinked at him, obviously she didn’t expect that answer. She frowned, “What is the best method to treat a ripped wing?”   
“Washing in boiling water, covering in a mixture of herbs that include fireroot, yarrow, and a few other standard herbs, then to wrap and have the dragon grounded for five days to two weeks based on the size of the wound.”  
“How many shots do a Nightmare, Nadder, and Nightfury have?” The woman asked with a victory smile.  
Hiccup chuckled, “A baby, then teen, then adult in order. Three, two, Unlimited. Five, six, Unlimited. And Nine, Eight, and Unlimited.” He glared at the woman, Astrid grinned, she loved seeing Hiccup like this, so confident, he rarely was like this because of the bullies as school that despite Astrid’s poundings still took every chance they could to torture him.   
The woman kept firing off questions for the next twenty minutes, Hiccup answering every one of them with not only the information she asked for, but enough information to make it so that a trick question couldn’t stump him.   
Finally, after asking probably fifty questions, the woman shook her head, “alright, fine, I give, geez, what are they teaching you kids over there?”  
Hiccup shook his head, “I learned it all myself. Through study and research since I was six. Now what is the issue?”  
The woman sighed, “The last few days, the dragons have been getting more restless, more aggressive, it isn’t close to mating season, so it doesn’t make any sense. A gronkle almost attacked Susan yesterday. Honestly, even being a dragon master, I don’t know if we can leave two newbies with things in this state.”   
Astrid walked up this time, “We can handle it, and if things go wrong, we will radio in.” She smiled at the woman, and extended her hand, “I’m Astrid, this is Hiccup,” she giggled at his mumbling, “Sorry, Henry, only I can call him that.” The others laughed, but quickly shut up when a glare was shot to them from Hiccup, which made Astrid more than a little happy, he could be assertive when he was confident, and he was always the most confident when around dragons.   
The woman shook her hand, “I’m Jade, those behind me are Susan, Jason, and Betty. Well, if you are sure, we are going to take off, two months here means we are long overdue for a real bed and a bath.”  
Astrid laughed, and the four of them turned to mount up. Jade turning to Hiccup, “I’m sorry about earlier kid, I have to admit, you actually know more about dragons than I do, I didn’t know all of that about the Titanwings, or even the Titan, if I didn’t know any better, I would say you had inside information.” She grinned and took off on her nightmare. The man had the changewing, and the other women shot off on their nadders.   
After a moment of silence, Astrid and Hiccup unsaddled the dragons, and let them head off. Soon, it was just the two of them, and they quickly made camp, as it was getting dark. Hiccup made dinner, fish stew, and they slept under the stars in their warm bed rolls. They had pointed their feet out with their heads next to each other. They didn’t say much, didn’t have to, they were both incredibly comfortable. And fell asleep easily.   
The first week on the island was less than eventful, they were just exploring the island, making sure they knew the layout and familiarizing themselves with were the groups of dragons roosted. It wasn’t until partway into the seconds week that they noticed what Jade had been talking about, they had found a large lake in the center of the island, and there was an almost constant stream of dragons coming to it to take a drink.  
They were their filling their canteens, when they heard an aggravated roar of a nadder. They spun around and found the blue green and gold nadder Astrid had flown in on approaching them threateningly. Then they looked around and saw the others starting to get agitated as well. Hiccup dropped his canteen and moved towards the riled up nadder, as Astrid kept an eye on the others.  
Hiccup approached carefully, “It’s alright girl,” he had both his hands extended in front of him, “I’m not going to hurt you, come on, there is no need for this.” The nadder looked like it was about to attack him, but he reached it first, and gently stroked it’s horn, the nadder almost instantly calmed and cooed. “There, there, it’s alright, no harm done.” He kept stroking the horn, he looked around the area and saw the others settle down as well. “Astrid,” He said seriously, “Call this in, we don’t need help, but this isn’t normal.”  
Astrid nodded and pulled out her radio, and tried to call out, “Hofferson to home base, over.”  
They waited for a moment, but all they got was static. They looked at each other as Astrid repeated her call out. Again, noting but static, a loud bang was heard on the other side of the island. Hiccup frowned, as he saw storm clouds picking up, “Astrid, put it away, we need to get the tent ready.”  
The next hour was a flurry of activity as they set up their heavy duty tent under an ancient and huge tree, and secured it. Just before the rain, or the solid wall of water, hit, they ducked into the tent. It wasn’t huge, but large enough for two to lay comfortably inside. Of course, that didn’t matter, the two of them had to curl up together to keep warm as the frigged cold blew into their tent. It was going to be a long night.


	5. Chapter 5

The long night turned into three, as the storm didn’t let up at all. They only left the tent to relieve themselves, and when they came back in they were drenched, forcing them to strip to keep from getting hypothermia. It was a miserable three days, but they made it through. Both swearing to each other to never tell any of the others about this.   
After emerging from their tent when the rains died down, they took in the damage, it was surprisingly low, but there were a few felled trees, a few injured dragons, and a lot of work. At least they didn’t have to worry about trappers.   
It took them two days to get everything back to normal, all the dragons treated, and back to exploring around. The dragons were even more restless after that, Astrid and Hiccup stuck together to be sure that they wouldn’t be caught alone by an angry dragon.   
After this, everything seemed to go back to normal, until that night. They were in their bags, about to sleep when a black fog surrounded the clearing and snuffed out the fire. Hiccup and Astrid shot up, but of them palming the small handgun they had hidden on their person. The area got darker and darker as the sky seemed to be blocked out by the black fog.   
Instantly Hiccup and Astrid were on their feet, back to back, their handguns in front of them ready to fire. “What is it Hiccup,” Astrid asked.   
Hiccup ran through all the knowledge he had been granted, but nothing explained this, it was like a dome of black smoke. “I’m not sure, it’s not a frightmare, and no other dragon can control the shape of smoke. If I believed in it, I would say this was just like the dark magic from the old legends.”  
“But that doesn’t exist right?” Astrid asked.  
“At this point it is up for grabs,” Hiccup said in response.   
“Very good Haddock, your mind is far more open then even I thought,” A feminine voice spoke out. Hiccup and Astrid quickly looked around, trying to locate the voice, but it sounded from all around them.   
“Who are you?” Hiccup said with confidence he really didn’t feel.   
“So brave, facing dark magic for the first time ever and your voice remaining calm and steady, even with your heart beating a hundred miles an hour. We made a good choice in you,” The voice said.   
“What does she mean Hiccup?” Astrid asked.  
“Hel if I know,” He said, trying to find the woman.  
“I mean the elders, and myself, we have watched you, both of you, and your souls are that of dragons. So, I have been sent to grant you a gift, something that no one else can grant,” there was an evil chuckle.  
“No thanks, we’re good,” Astrid said.  
“What she said, not our birthdays,” Hiccup added.  
“Oh, how precious, you two think you have a choice,” Suddenly the fog froze, and flew at them. Hiccup flipped around and tackled Astrid to the ground, covering her body with his own, and that was the last thing either of them saw before the world faded to back in the fog, and they passed out. 

{Hiccup’s POV}  
I knew something was different, first off, I wasn’t freezing, meaning something was keeping me warm, I felt heavier than normal, but knew that was just me. I was about to open my eyes, and see if the dark fog was gone, but then it hit me. I wouldn’t say they were memories, it was more like, knowledge, being imported directly into my brain. It was painful and made me roar.   
Wait, roar? Suddenly the knowledge stopped, leaving me with a massive headache, and more information then I had ever learned on my own to sort through. Suddenly, I knew what had happened, we had been changed, blessed, or cursed, depending on how you look at it, and were now a creature from old myths and legend, only, instead of being half man, half wolf, they were half dragon.   
I stood, remembering that I had tackled Astrid, I was careful not to place my hands, or claws on anything that could be human or dragon. I didn’t know what type of dragon I was, so I could be massive, and she could be tiny. Or the other way around.   
I opened by eyes, and the light almost blinded me, making me close them quickly. I Slowly opened them again. Adjusting to the brightness of the new sensitivity that my eyes had. It must be day, I figured, and when I finally was able to open my eyes, I realized I was right. I looked around the clearing, finding that it had been exposed to a very large blast of fire, probably part of the transformation, I was still sorting through the knowledge that was put into my head, so I couldn’t ‘remember’ if that was part of it.   
Looking around I finally looked at Astrid, to make sure she was at east still here. I was socked at what I saw, there before me, was a bone white dragon that was shaped exactly like the description of the Nightfury. It was curled in on itself, sleeping peacefully, barely moving as it breathed in and out. Instantly I knew it was Astrid, it was the perfect dragon for her, mighty, fast, intelligent, and feared. But most of all, the most beautiful dragon I had ever seen.   
After spending what I knew was probably way too long, I turned from her, and looked at myself, and was shocked further to see that I was the same, almost identical to Astrid, I did notice I was slightly larger than she was, but only just. I sat on my hind legs, holding myself up in a sitting position with my front legs, and focused on sorting through the knowledge that had been bestowed on me.   
The knowledge was incredibly vast, and I knew from the knowledge itself that it wasn’t part of the spell the dragon witch, as that was what she was, had cast. I knew for a fact that we were Titanwing furies not Nightfuries, those were a breed of fury, apparently there were multiple, and they weren’t limited to Lightning as their element of death.   
Finally, I found what I was searching for, knowledge on how my plasma blast worked, after a thought, I looked to the sky and let the blast free. The rush of power, the feeling of bringing such violent force into the world at a thought and a cost of a negligible amount of energy, it was exhilarating, and I made a note that it meant I needed to be very careful.   
There was a noise to my left, and without thinking, my body moved, putting myself between Astrid and the noise, having a good idea who made the noise.   
“How in the world are you moving? You shouldn’t be used to the body yet,” The woman said in a growling voice that I knew without knowing it was dragonease.  
“You have one chance to explain yourself witch,” I growled out, causing the woman’s eyes to widen, in the day I could see her, she was very average looking, black hair, brown eyes, wearing the same robes the elders had been wearing.   
She backed up slightly looking at me, obviously not expecting me to be so in control of my form, honestly, even without the knowledge, this body felt more natural to me than my human body. “I was told by the elders to grant you the blessing, they said that you were a dragon soul and needed to be granted the gift, same with the girl.”  
I growled low, making her stop talking, but I relaxed slightly, “So elder Gothi told you to do this?” The woman nodded quickly. “What is her form?”  
The woman’s eyes widened, “How did you…”  
“I don’t know!” I snapped, glaring at her, “Just answer the damn question.”  
“She is a Titanwing Terrible Terror, the oldest of us all, the original shifter,” The woman said.   
I frowned, at least mentally, then nodded, “You’ve done your damage, now leave, I see you near Astrid or myself again and I will blow you apart.”  
The woman looked like she was going to leave, “How are you so calm? I have to know.”  
I looked at her a long time, before saying, “I feel more myself than I ever have before, and I know what you did, some how.”  
“Do you know what you are? I didn’t think I would ever live to see one, much less two made at the same time.”  
I growled at her, “I know exactly what I am, and how to destroy you, so leave, now!”  
There was no further hesitation, she shifted into a Razorwing and flew off into the sky. I turned and looked back at Astrid, she was still sleeping, I curled up next to her, and watched her to wait for her to wake up, I had no idea if she got the knowledge as well, I had a feeling probably not, but I would help her through this. 

{Standard POV}  
It was closer to three hours later that Astrid finally stirred, she groaned, and seamed to stretch, before realizing something was wrong, then opening her eyes just like Hiccup had. She looked around, then awkwardly moved and saw Hiccup sitting there, looking at her, and freaked out. She tried to jump back, tripping over her tail as she backed up.   
“Astrid, calm down,” Hiccup said calmly, and she just flipped out more. Her eyes widened, and she started trying to run from the talking dragon. He really didn’t blame her, but she was going to hurt herself, so, he got up and pounced on her, pinning her to the ground by getting on her back. “Astrid, it’s me, Hiccup, calm down or you are going to hurt yourself.”  
Astrid just kept trying to fight, rather clumsily, but she did have the strength of a dragon behind her. After a good twenty minutes, she seemed to finally give up struggling, then spoke, “What is happening, who are you, what happened to me?”  
Hiccup sighed, “I already told you, I’m Hiccup, and what happened is that a witch turned us into some form of ware-dragons. Please, calm down so that we can figure out what we are going to do.”  
She nodded, finally, and Hiccup got off her back, backing away from her to give her space. She turned to face him, cautiously, and seemed to study him for a while, “How do I know you’re Hiccup?”  
Hiccup chuckled, a weird, almost seal like sound, that was more like his Astrid, “On your thirteenth birthday, I snuck you out of your house and gave you your first dragon flight, that ended only two minutes later when the Gronkle ran into a tree and knocked itself out.”  
Astrid’s eyes went wide, and without the same clumsiness, came over to him, and in an all too natural, motion placed her head under his, Hiccup knew she was seeking comfort, he would be too if this didn’t just feel perfectly natural to him to be a dragon. “What does this mean Hiccup, did she tell you?”  
Hiccup shook his head above hers as he simply rested his head on top of hers, “I only asked her why she did it, I already know what she did. I woke up with, knowledge, it was like someone plugged a USB into my brain and downloaded thousands of years worth of dragon knowledge. Including the magic she used to change us. And no Astrid, there is no cure, we are stuck like this.” She started shaking. He pulled back and looked into her still blue eyes, “Astrid, we are only half dragon, during the day we can be whatever we choose to be, it will only be at night that the pull to change to a dragon will be strong.”  
Astrid nodded, though she still looked like she was having trouble processing this. Hiccup went through everything in his head to try and figure out what they should do next.


	6. Chapter 6

The doors slammed open, making all ten elders turn their heads to see who had barged in. Seeing the witch, Synthia, was not something that made them happy. Especially in her disheveled state. “Why are you here? You are supposed to be teaching Haddock and Hofferson about what had been done to them.” One of the elders spoke.  
“We are all in big trouble,” She said. “Haddock knows, I don’t know how he does, but he knows what happened, he can already control his dragon body with incredible ease, not even a minute after he woke, he PURPOSEFULLY fired a breath shot into the air. I swear I was staring into the eyes of one of the ancient ones, not a newly changed shifter.”  
The elders were all at full attention at that, “Even still, you are a Razorwing, your scales are invulnerable to almost any breath attack, and most do not have the claws to cut through, why are you so terrified?”  
Synthia shivered, “I have never felt such fear staring into the eyes of a dragon before, he told me to explain, he knows that you ordered their change Gothi,” She said worried.  
Gothi waved a hand and one of the elders next to her spoke for her, “We planned on telling them as soon as you got back anyway, again I do not see what one shifter would be able to do, despite being able to naturally move like a dragon, to make you, the second oldest of us, to be so terrified.”  
Synthia gulped, “They are both Furies.”  
There was silence, until there was a laugh, a joyful laugh, and one they hadn’t heard for over a hundred years. They all turned to Gothi, who was holding her sides to from laughter. After a moment, she spoke, “The Titanwing furies have returned to the world, and one is a true dragon soul. Things are going to get interesting.” Everyone gapped at her, she never spoke that much at once, and they were about to be more shocked, “Belethor, issue a warning that no one is to go to that island no mater what happens or what is called in.” The man nodded and left the room. Then Gothi added, “No shifters to the island, we have irritated one of the most powerful dragons ever known, this needs to be handled delicately.”  
She jumped up and shifted into her dragon form. As a Titanwing Terrible Terror, she was the same shape, only bone white with ebony swirls covering her body, and about three times as big. The next time she spoke, it was in a deep dragonease, “I think it is time that I had a talk with Henry Hiccup Haddock the third.” And she took off through an open spot in the ceiling.

~

Hiccup and Astrid had moved to the beach of the island, getting Astrid used to moving her body naturally in a walk. After about a mile, she was finally walking normally, and the two of them walked shoulder to shoulder. Even though they were dragons, Astrid still found a great amount of comfort in having Hiccup close right now. Likewise, Hiccup wasn’t going to leave her side, she apparently wasn’t gifted the knowledge he was, so they both had different reasons for being awkward. Hiccup was still sorting through the knowledge, trying to understand it all and not have it pop up at random, but be able to use it, and Astrid was still getting used to her reptilian body. They had grabbed their packs and drug them along, or at least Astrid’s pack, Hiccups was nothing but a smoldering pile of ash.   
When they had reached the beach, Hiccup tried to excuse himself to relieve himself, but Astrid started freaking out, so he decided that it wasn’t worth leaving her sight. Instead, they sat across from each other on the sand, Hiccup had found something that was very important to them, how to transform back to a human.   
“Astrid, I know that this is new, it’s scary, and you don’t know what we are going to do,” Hiccup said, “But can you trust me that I can get us through this?”  
Astrid looked at him a long time, before nodded, “Of course Hiccup, I just don’t know how we are going to do this if we change every night into a dragon? I mean, what happens when we go home?”  
Hiccup saw her starting to freak out again, and move forward, and pushed his forehead against hers, she stopped moving, her breathing was rapid, “Astrid, breathe, we will figure it out. We are in this together, just like we have been with everything for the past decade. Best friends forever right?” She nodded slightly, but she was shaking. “Now, I want us to try shifting back to human form, I think this will make you a little more comfortable knowing that you can shift back on your own. Obviously at night that won’t be the case, but you will be able to do it during the day.”  
She nodded, “What do I have to do?”  
Hiccup pulled back slightly, “It’s a matter of will power, and understanding, you have to believe that you will change, and will it to happen. The same can be said if you want to become a dragon again, you simply believe that it will happen, then will it to become reality.”  
“Lets just stick to becoming human right now…” She said quietly.   
Hiccup nodded, “Close your eyes, we’ll do this at the same time. Think about being human, about everything you are being that of a human. Once you have that image, you need to will it to be, I know you already believe it, now you just have to make it be.”  
For a moment, nothing happened, then slowly, in unison, the two of them started morphing, their tails faded, as did their wings, and they shrunk to the size of a normal human. Their hair grew from their heads, and from their sitting position, due to the speed they were changing, they were able to adjust into a sitting position that held them. It was around five minutes before the transformation was complete, and they both opened their eyes, before realizing one small detail, they were both naked.   
“It seems our clothes were either burned or ripped up when we changed,” Hiccup said, looking away before blushing, “Sorry, I didn’t realize we would be like this.”  
Astrid was blushing herself, though, with Hiccup looking away, she didn’t turn her head, but jumped at him and hugged him tightly. “It doesn’t matter, I’m just glad I can still be human at all.” He nodded and wrapped her up in a more comfortable hug than he would have thought with them both being stark naked. He looked out over the sea, then over to Astrid’s bag, “You can get dressed, we’ll have to see what happens to your clothes tonight. You have a few extra sets, so it will be good to know if we have to strip down each time to prevent it.”  
Astrid pulled back, and stood up, grinning when Hiccup turned away again. It was bad of her, but at this point, she knew how protective he was of her, and honestly, she had been this close to just seducing him anyway, as horrible as this situation was, she wasn’t going to shirk a hence to tease him with her Valkyrie glory.   
She moved to her bag and quickly dressed. Before bringing her riding cloak over to him and he wrapped it around his shoulders. Once relatively dressed they sat next to each other looking over the sea. “So what purpose could they have with turning us into dragons?” Astrid asked. She knew he didn’t have a real answer, he already said that the knowledge he got was simply how things worked, for like, every dragon ever. And it was especially detailed about furies.   
“I have a feeling that the entire Elder council are shifters, Gothi is a Titanwing Terrible Terror, they are typically a lot larger than a regular terror, and much faster. They probably founded DFSU to be honest, and are using it to keep an eye on the dragons, if I had to guess,” He hated guessing on things like this, “This is their recruitment plan, find people that would be a good fit to be a dragon, then change them without a choice they join, it’s a good method, help them come to terms with what happened, the witch probably being depicted as the bad guy.”  
“From what you aid, she was terrified of you,” Astrid said.   
Hiccup shrugged, “she might be a witch, able to wield the dark magic of the dragons, but she is still mortal, and I was fairly forceful with my threats, what do you think you would do if suddenly faced with the dragon of your nightmares that was relatively pissed off?”  
Astrid nodded, “Good point.”  
“Anyway, I honestly feel a little sorry for saying what I did to her, she didn’t really have a choice then she was thrown into the anger of a fury, despite being smaller than a normal fury, we are far more powerful, and far more deadly.” Hiccup said, sighing, “Maybe we can find an ally in her somehow.”  
Astrid shook her head, “I really don’t think I want the person that did this to me as an ally Hiccup, you might not mind being a dragon, but…”  
When she trailed off he looked at her, and knew what she stopped herself from saying, “But you have family that will make it more difficult to accept, I know Ast, how many times have I told you that I will never begrudge you your family?” She leaned against, him, nodding sadly, she had been there with him when his father had passed, she was the only one that had seen just how broken he was, not even the doctors had seen his mask of strength drop. “I know it makes it easier for me, but I also know that the two of us were probably meant for this. Let me explain,” He said when she started to protest, “Neither of us should have been able to adapt to the bodies so quickly, unless we have what is called a Dragon Soul, it is a manifestation of dragon like instincts in a human. For a human, it would take a good week to even be able to walk here like you did. Or do the transformation, it tells me that we always had a dragon inside us. And that we both became not only furies, but Titanwings, that is incredible, I’m not even sure you know. There are probably a total of twelve Titanwings in all the world. And we BOTH are one of the same species, that is also the most elusive and rare species of sub alpha dragons.”  
Astrid seemed to digest that, they sat there for a while before they heard flapping, Astrid brushed it off as one of the dragons on the island, but Hiccup caught onto the direction, and looked out over the sea to find a figure flying at them as a fast pace.   
Without thinking, Hiccup was in front of Astrid, his cloak disappearing and shifting in an instant into dragon form. Dropping protectively in front of her, and growling, even as the dragon shot down and landed on the ground softly.   
Astrid was shocked, it had taken them five minutes to become human, Hiccup had transformed in the blink of an eye, and was growling at a dragon she swore looked like a too large Terror. Then she realized, Gothi was supposed to be a Titanwing Terrible Terror.  
“Hello,” She said in a growling dragonease, “I assume you know who I am?”  
Hiccup nodded, “We do, Elder Gothi.”  
She gave him a questioning look, “Respect? Even though you know what I did?”  
Hiccup growled, but Gothi didn’t move, she knew that would be the wrong move at this moment. “Despite your hand in our circumstances, you are still an elder, and the leader of the DFSU, so respect is demanded even if I want to blast you where you stand for what you have done.”  
Gothi considered his words for a moment, “Do you realize the contradiction in your words Haddock? TO blast me, you would need to use the very form that you are complaining about receiving.”  
Hiccup moved so fast that the sand flew up around him, and when he stopped, he was standing, only slightly, over Gothi, his face only inches from hers, “You misunderstand Elder, I have no issues accepting my own changes, but you hurt Astrid, and as her best friend, I will say this once to you, and expect you to take the message to all in the DFSU, the next person to hurt her, will not live, regardless of standing or respect demanded.”  
Gothi searched his eyes, she had heard threats like this before, the devotion of friends, however, never once had she believed it, but searching this dragons eyes, the deep green emeralds framed by bone white scales, she had no doubt he would follow through, and he would do it without remorse. “You are an interesting character Haddock, you were evaluated as the calmest, almost shy personalities in the training. Yet here you are threatening someone with far more experience and resources at their disposal.”  
Hiccup didn’t back down, “When it doesn’t matter, then I have no need to be strict,” He looked back at Astrid, who was slightly amazed, and terrified, but what she was hearing. “But from this point out, I’m with Astrid,” He turned back to Gothi, “It doesn’t matter the mission, or the reason for wanting her to be the only one on the mission, I am with her.”  
Gothi’s eyes did go wide, “You are staying with us?” She was confused, she was ready to argue with this teenager to keep him with the company. Now he was offering to stay willingly, while she didn’t like to kick the gift horse in the mouth, she found herself asking, “Why?”  
Hiccup backed away slightly, “I for one will not allow this to stop me from helping people, and dragons. But I imagine your facility is one of the only places suitable for people to be turning into dragons every night?” Gothi nodded, “Then I will not subject Astrid to an environment that she can’t feel safe sleeping. So if she wants to stay with DFSU, then we will stay, but I am leaving it up to her.”  
Gothi now realized what was going on, and she looked at Astrid, who seemed to be just socked, so she felt it was better if she didn’t say anything about it. “Very well, is there anything you would ask of me?”  
“Some damn peace,” Hiccup spat, “I don’t need any of you here to get us used to our dragon side, and right now, I don’t want any of you around us, so I am going to take Astrid to a different island, tomorrow, you will send people here tomorrow night to replace us, and you wont search for us, we need time to figure out how we are going to deal with things, you have thrown a wrench into a family that is already stretched thin.” Gothi felt something she hadn’t felt in a long time watching the Titanwing fury get angrier, she had no idea what powers this boy now possessed, as furies were unpredictable. The only fury she knew to be alive at this point was a Nightfury with the power of lightning, and he was terrifying when angry.   
Gothi nodded, “I understand young fury, when you feel ready, please come and see me, you will not be stopped at any time from coming to me.”  
Hiccup nodded, and turned back to Astrid, before turning his head back, “And Gothi, I believe I have frightened your witch unnecessarily, she was only carrying out your orders, tell her that I apologize, and that she need not worry seeing me again, but to keep her magic to herself when we are around.”  
Gothi paused, but nodded, and took off, leaving the two alone on the island.  
Hiccup shifted and grabbed the cloak, strapping it around his shoulders, and silently moving over to the water to look out. Astrid, for her part didn’t really know how to react to this, he had practically just said that the only thing he cared about in this whole thing, was that she was changed, and that it didn’t matter who he had to fight, he didn’t say that, but Astrid knew him, to stay next to her. She slowly got up and walked over to him, standing next to him.   
“Why?” She asked, she knew he knew what she was asking.  
There was a long silence where Astrid didn’t push, she knew he heard her, and gave him time to answer, “You are my only family Astrid, Snot doesn’t count, or uncle Spite, they hate me, from this moment forward, I’m with you, it doesn’t matter if I have to sneak around, or beat someone to a pulp to keep from being separated from you, I will do it.”  
Astrid thought for a moment, and looked at him, “What if I ask you for space?” She saw the hurt cross his face and suddenly regretted the question. But before she could apologize, he answered.  
“I would give it to you,” Hiccup said quietly, “I don’t want to do this to be a pain on you Astrid, I want to do this because I want to protect you, and because my life is a little brighter when you are around.”   
Astrid relaxed, and smiled, reaching around him and hugging him close, “What if I asked you to stay with me forever.”  
Hiccup chuckled, “Careful Ast, forever is a long time now, as dragons we are practically immortal.”  
Astrid looked up at him, wide eyed, he nodded, to her, “But that means…”  
Hiccup nodded again and looked back to the ocean, “It means that we will outlive your family, and stay eighteen for the rest of our unnaturally long lives.”  
Astrid shivered, “I’ll keep that in mind,” She said, pausing, then adding, “so, will you stay with me forever?”  
Hiccup laughed, “Anything you say, my beautiful fury.” Astrid punched him in the shoulder, causing him to chuckle, before wrapping his arm around her, “Yes Astrid, I said it to Gothi, I will be next to you no matter what.”  
Astrid nodded, “Good, now, how about we get some thing to eat?”  
Hiccup nodded and took off the cloak, “Since I don’t have any clothes, I think I’ll just stick like this,” He said in his draconic voice that was quite a bit deeper than his human tone, yet still very much Hiccup, Astrid found herself not minding.   
“Alright, then can I get a ride?” She asked teasingly. To her surprise, he leaned on shoulder down, inviting her on, she looked at him for a long moment before asking, “Are you sure?”  
He nodded, “You’ll be riding on my back tomorrow as well, only we’ll be flying, so get on.” Astrid was hesitant, she didn’t want to do anything to hurt him. When she finally climbed on, she realized how little she had to worry about that. In this form, he was more solid than a rock, she slipped onto his back just in front of his wings, and found herself sitting comfortably, surprisingly, in a spot just behind his shoulders. When she was situated, he started walking slowly, and they made it to a small cave in good time. They had a small stock of fish to cook, and a firepit that was always ready to be lit. He turned outside and spat about six blasts of plasma at the ground.  
“What are you doing?” Astrid asked from his back.  
“Trying to figure out the best way to control the size of my flame,” He took a breath, another six shots, the last one being only as large as her pinky finger. “There we go,” He turned and walked into the cave and blasted the firepit with that small breath, lighting the fire without destroying the pit.   
“Well, it’s official,” Astrid said, sliding off his back, and patting his shoulder. He looked at her questioningly, “You officially can do anything. So, I guess I’m keeping you so that I can light my fires.”  
Hiccup looked at her for a moment, before chuckling, “You will be able to do it too.”  
Astrid froze for a moment, “I don’t know if I will ever have that kind of control Hic.”  
Hiccup shook his head but didn’t say anything. He knew he wouldn’t convince her by talking, he would show her, he knew she was meant to be a dragon, just like he was, she just didn’t have the benefit of having the knowledge.   
{Hiccup POV}  
I curled up to one side of the fire, and let Astrid cook the food, I found that I wasn’t hungry, so I just watched her cook, then eat, it was interesting, as a dragon, I could see her much more clearly, every move, every hair, every twitch as she focused on the food, I saw the imperfections that were hidden with the human eye. And yet, as I took all this in, I only found her more beautiful. I had always had a cruse on her, from the moment I met her in preschool, I know I know, there is no way a five year old boy knew he had a crush on a girl, well, I am here to tell you that I did. He was so strong, didn’t care what the others said, and never picked on me. Then the even with the Triple Strikes, and in that moment, I couldn’t let them hurt her. My dad and I had actually talked about that, and he told me that it sounded like I loved her. Never before had my dad been so right.   
Watching her prepare her food, being careful not to burn the fish, I simply basked in her beauty. One of these days, I knew I would have to talk to her about these feelings, but today, was not that day, today, she simply needed to know that I would not leave her alone with this burden. Of course, I would not leave her alone with anything, I hadn’t been lying, she was family, my only family as far as I was concerned.   
It was amusing as she cooked the food, and still burned it despite her efforts to do otherwise. She ate the fish and glared at me when I chuckled in that dragon chuckle, “Oh shut it you over grown lizard.” She said, making me chuckle more. “So, what other knowledge did you get? Besides just about the magic stuff?”  
I stopped chuckling and thought about it, I still hadn’t sorted through it all, but there was so much. It would take me a month of nights to figure it all out. “Stuff about dragons, of every species, at least I assume so, there are many I never knew existed. I know things about each of the ones that we do know about that we never would have been able to figure out without being changed Astrid.”  
Astrid smiled, and walked over, before hesitantly sitting down next to me and leaning against my side, “Tell me about Nadders,” she asked, while seemed to relax slightly. She seemed comfortable with me being a dragon at least, maybe that would help things get to where she could accept who she was.  
{Standard POV}  
They sat there for a long time, Hiccup telling Astrid all he could about any dragon that she asked him about. They had been through all the dragons she knew the names of, it had helped Hiccup sort through much of the knowledge still swimming through his head, when he told her that, she smiled at him, “Then you are just going to have to tell me about every dragon until you have a firm grasp on all you know, I’ll never remember it all, but it’s awesome hearing you describing everything.”  
Hiccup had laughed at that, and agreed, it was peaceful just talking to Astrid, they had always done this, she would come to his house, sneaking out of course, or him to hers and they would just talk for hours. They were happy, until Astrid looked outside, only to see the night and fear started to grip her. “Hiccup…” She said, Hiccup immediately looked up, not understanding what was causing the fear, but then he saw the black sky, and realized what was bothering her.  
“Astrid, look into my eyes,” She did as she was told, looking into those draconic emerald eyes that looked so much like Hiccup, “You are both dragon, and human, you are still you no matter what form you are in.”  
She nodded slowly, then took a deep breath, “Wait, why have I not changed yet?”  
Hiccup was stunned for a moment, before answering, “Huh…” he looked outside and it was for sure probably closer to the middle of the night, meaning he had been talking for many, many hours. “I don’t know, we are supposed to shift every night.” He closed his eyes and focused, but nothing happened, “I can’t change back, so something must be going on.” He looked back to her, “Do you want to shift? Or do you just want to try sleeping and see what happens?”  
Astrid seemed to think for a moment, before leaning back against him. “This might be my last chance to sleep as a human, I want to do it tonight, can I…” She trailed off, seeming to not be sure of her question.   
Hiccup, however, felt he knew what she was going to ask, he shifted slightly, and allowed his wing to shift to wrap her in a cocoon, “I’ll keep you warm, and anyone that dares wake you other then me will be met with a furies blast.” He retracted his teeth, and smiled at her with a gummy smile, getting the desired effect of making her laugh.  
“That was ridiculous,” She said after a giggle fit, “To think that the deadliest of dragons can look so adorable.”  
“Why thank you milady,” He said, he rested his head down nest to his wing, “Sleep well, tomorrow, I am taking you to an island that we will have to ourselves so that we can get you used to your dragon form. We won’t even have other dragons there.”  
“How do you know about this island?” Astrid asked as she snuggles up into his side and pulled his wing tighter, surprisingly comfortable next to his scaly hide.   
“Dad use to talk about an island that was owned by his father, dragons don’t go there due to the totems that were made from dragon bone around the island,” He puffed, “it’s not magic, they just don’t like it. And the only person who knows about it is uncle Spitelout. If We find him their, I will take you somewhere else, I won’t have the DFSU know where we are. So, we wont take the radio with us, and the trackers they gave us in the drink before we left were already destroyed in the shift.”  
“They put trackers in us?”  
Hiccup chuckled, “Standard procedure, but they can’t withstand the internal heat of a dragon’s body.”  
Astrid nodded, and laid against his side, “Goodnight Hiccup.”  
“Goodnight, my golden Valkyrie,” Hiccup said quietly, not noticing the smile on her face as she heard him. They both fell asleep quickly, never noticing the eyes that were looking at them from outside the cave, or the ring of guardian dragons that protected their cave.


	7. Chapter 7

Gothi had arrived and immediately shifted back, finding everyone still present. There was a moment of silence while the elder considered what she was to say. Before anything else, she turned to Synthia, “Hiccup sends apologizes for frightening you, he understands your position in this, and blames only me for the situation he and the girl Astrid are in, you need not fear his presence, though don’t expect to be friends with him.” The woman seemed to relax slightly, making Gothi realize that he had probably given her a threat that she didn’t have any choice but to believe, the elder could sympathize.   
Looking around, she felt this was as good a time as any to relay Hiccup’s warning. “The two are in fact Titanwing Furies. And Hiccup is a true dragon soul, meaning he has the knowledge of the Titans. They will be on their own for some time, we are not to seek them out, and if we see them, we are to give them space, any breach of this and they may never return to the DFSU.” There were nods around, and Gothi sighed, hoping this next part would be as accepted, for all of their sakes. “In addition, unless otherwise provoked, no one is to touch Astrid Hofferson, Hiccup has warned me that anyone to harm her, will not live to see another day.”  
One of the elders coughed, “I apologize Elder Gothi, but I find it hard to believe that he would not only have the ability to kill any of us, even with being a Titanwing Fury, but have the stones to back up his threat.”  
There was a silence, that no one seemed to want to break, until an unexpected voice spoke it up, “He has the stones alright, and rest assured, if that boy sets his targets on you over harming the girl, you will be dead,” They all turned to see Sergeant Woodman leaning against the door frame, he nodded to Gothi, ignoring the other looks around the room, “There is no need for you to strain your voice any longer Elder Gothi, I will make sure these idiots know to leave the teens alone.”  
Gothi smiled at the Sergeant, better yet, she smiled at her grandson, he always knew when the day was getting to her, she bowed her head to him slightly, and left the room, without her elder advisers. Woodman looked around the room, “Make no mistake, Hiccup is not someone to be triffled with, he might have seemed an awkward teen when he was briefed, but there is a fire unlike any before him inside his soul, and I imagine, in dragon form, that fire will be burning brightly and freely. When he is confident, his threats are promises, and his abilities are second to none, and I have a gut feeling, that he is confident as a dragon.”  
“What makes you think that?” One of the elders said.  
“First, he threatened the witch that turned him,” He turned to Synthia, “I apologize for the term lady Synthia,” She shook her head and smiled at him, “And he threatened Elder Gothi, in addition, he was not confident as a human, thus he must be as a dragon.”  
The elders seemed to look at each other and debate it, Sergeant Woodman just shook his head, “If you don’t believe me, fine, I know half of you want to go capture them, get them under your control, well, if you decide to go, please tell me first, so that I can prepare your funeral.” He turned and started walking out, and smiled as Synthia joined him, “So long Elders, if any of you are as smart as you claim, then you will head my words.”  
Then he was gone, leaving a half confused, half furious elder council.

~

Hiccup woke first, the light of the sun creeping into the cave as the son rose over the horizon, he quickly flexed all of his muscles slightly, just to make sure everything was where it should be, he was sure not to move his wing though, as he felt Astrid’s steady breathing, meaning she was still asleep. She was always such a peaceful sleeper, that he hated to wake her, though they had multiple hours of flight to do today, and he didn’t want to risk her shifting while on the flight, so they needed to start early, he may not have flown yet, but he was positive that he would be able to fly as long as he needed to.   
He sighed, and shifted his wing slightly, revealing her sleeping form, she was curled up next to him, using his hind leg as a pillow, and a small smile on her face. He shifted his leg slightly, “Astrid, you need to wake up now.”  
She gently stirred, then opened her eyes, frowning, “Five more minutes Hiccup, I was just dreaming about strangling Snot for hitting on me again.”  
Hiccup chuckled, “A enjoyable as that sounds, we have a long flight ahead of us, and I want to make sure we can get there before you shift.”  
Astrid sighed, then shot up, staring at him, “It’s all real?”  
Hiccup nodded at her, “’fraid so.”   
He saw Astrid frown, and get up, stretching, “Well, I guess we should get away from here before the elders send the replacements, are we going to eat something first?”  
Hiccup nodded, “You cook up your food, I’m going to go get a dragon sized meal, I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Astrid nodded back, and grabbed her own fish, starting to cook again, after revitalizing the fire, Hiccup left the cave.  
He now saw the line of dragons, all facing away from the cave, half of them sleeping, while the others were at alert. “What in the world…” He said. One of the Nadders turned around and faced him, before bowing her head.  
“Fury of Titan, good morning, we kept you and your human guarded through the night,” She squawked in Dragonease, Hiccup was shocked he hadn’t thought about the fact that he would be able to talk to and understand other dragons now.   
“Why did you do this?” Hiccup asked.   
The Nadder looked confused, “it is our duty to protect the Titan ones, sire always said so anyway, and when human Fury of Titan was nice to us, so we wanted to be sure you were safe from the one with dark smoke.”  
Hiccup was shocked, he looked around and saw a dozen dragons forming a protective half circle around the cave entrance, no one would be able to come or go without them noticing. Especially with the group of Terrible Terrors above the mouth of the cave. He looked back to the Nadder, “What is your name?”  
The Nadder seemed to be pleased with the question, “I am Brightscale, my mother named me for that because I only had one shinny scale when hatched, but now I have all of my scales shinning beautifully.”  
Hiccup nodded, “I see that, thank you Brightscale, and all of you, for protecting us, but you should be sure to protect yourselves, you don’t need to protect us like this.”  
Brightscale shook her head, “We do, it is because of you that we no longer hear the voices, as soon as you were dragon, the voices could not reach us, and we now know what they are so we can ignore them when you are gone. To us, you are Alpha, and the pack protects the Alpha, just as the Alpha protects the pack.”  
Hiccup blinked, Alpha? He wasn’t an Alpha, he knew Titanwings don’t have the Alpha gene, and he couldn’t be Alpha to a ‘pack’ that he was going to leave. “If you know I am going to leave, you know that I can’t be your Alpha.”  
Brightscale shook her head, “You are Alpha, when you call, we will come, dragons choose Alpha, strongest, and you are strongest, we choose you, no other can take us.”  
Hiccup wanted to argue, but thought better of it, Alpha choices were not something he had found yet in his knowledge, he knew it was there, he could feel it, but he had to sort to it. “Who are the leaders on the island?” He asked instead of arguing.  
“Flameburst, Deathshot, and Slashtail, along with myself, we lead in the absence of Alpha,” Brightscale said happily.   
“Can you get the others and meet me here in,” He paused, “Do you know what an hour is?”  
The dragon nodded, “We have known human time for generations, it is very useful.”  
Hiccup chuckled, “Meet me here in half an hour, I need to eat, then I will be back to talk with you.”  
Brightscales bowed, “Of course Fury of Titan, we shall be here.”  
Hiccup nodded and without thinking, spread his wings, and blasted into the sky.  
{Hiccup POV}  
I didn’t know what I was doing, but my body did, it was odd, I have flapped without realizing I had done it, and in one flap I was already fifty feet in the air, and had to flap again or fall, so I did, and suddenly, I was flying. There were two things I knew as soon as I was in the air, one, that it was the most natural thing in the world to me, I was MEANT to fly, and two, that this was a thousand times better than ridding a dragon. I was the dragon, I sped off to the ocean, and despite the feeling of absolute joy, focused on the task at hand.   
The knowledge came up the moment I asked for it, and I knew how a fury fished, searching around, it took me a moment to find a spot that the fish were close to the surface. I turned and in an action that was still new to me, charged the plasma in the back of my throat, before releasing a single blast on the surface of the water. Two dozen fish floated to the surface, all dead, and I took four passes to collect them all in my mouth, swallowing them whole, knowing they would digest perfectly.   
As I swallowed the last of the fish, I gave a few strong thrusts of my wings, launching myself away from the waves, and high into the sky. Soon, I leveled myself out, adjusting my tailfins by instinct to shift into a gentle glide. I closed my eyes as I headed back for the island, feeling the air rush past my face, over and under my wings and both sets of tailfins. It was magical to me, and utterly freeing.   
Right about half an hour on the dot, I landed in front of the cave, noticing that only four dragons were there, including Brightscale, meaning the others had to be Flameburst, Deathshot, and Slashtail. Given how it seemed the dragons named their young, I could only assume the Nightmare was Flameburst, the other Nadder was Deathshot, and the Razorwhip was Slashtail. It was odd, I was the smallest of the five dragons standing present, yet when I landed, they bowed to me, to me, Henry Hiccup Haddock, the runt of the group, the nerd, the bullied, and now, the Titanwing fury.  
“No need to bow to me,” Hiccup said gently, “In fact, I wanted to talk to you four about the island, I assume we are not the first to be changed on this island?”  
The Nightmare spoke, “We?”  
I nodded, “My human, as you put it Brightscale, her name is Astrid, and she was changed along with me.”  
The dragons shared a look, “She did not change last night.” Flameburst said.   
I nodded again, “I know, we don’t know why, from what I know, that had never happened before, but I assure you, she is as much dragon as I am.”  
The Nightmare shrugged, it was a funny sight with the long neck and massive shoulders, “Very well, but you are correct, over the years, many have been changed here.”  
I nodded, “We ae going to leave this island, if any of them asks which direction we went, we need you to give them mixed directions. Some of you say one way, some another, and keep changing your story.”  
The dragons didn’t even hesitate, “It will be done Alpha,” The Razorwhip said, “will you return?”  
I made my own shrug, “I honestly don’t know, I don’t have a plan beyond getting away from here and helping Astrid adjust.”  
The dragons bowed again, “until we meet again, Fury of Titan,” The nightmare said, then took off and left. The Nadder, not having said anything, walked up to me and looked long into my eyes.  
Finally, the Nadder spoke, “I do not care about you being Titanwing, but looking into your eyes I see a true dragon, welcome Alpha, should you ever need it, you will have my help, you only need to call.”  
I bowed my head slightly, still not quite understanding what I had done to have this happening. I turned to the Razorwhip, who simply nodded, and took off, then back to Brightscale, “Thank you again Brightscale, you do your sire and dam proud.”  
The Nadder jumped giddily then took off. I walked back to the cave, to see Astrid huffing over a pile of burnt fish, I froze for a moment when she saw me, and pouted at me. I broken down in laughter, after a moment, she too started laughing, fifteen minutes later, we finally could keep our composure, as we had broken into laughter a dozen times after calming.  
{Standard POV}  
Hiccup walked over to Astrid, who grabbed another fish, the last one, and handed it to him, “Cook it, I need at least something.”  
Hiccup chuckled again, then grabbed the stick with his claw, then opened his mouth with plasma radiating from the back of his throat, a minute later, there was a perfectly cooked fish being devoured by Astrid. He was glad it worked, that specific trick definitely was not something given to him in knowledge, he just figured he could get the right temperature, and not hold it there too long.  
After she ate, they were quite a while, then Astrid finally said, “should we leave now? And how am I going to right you that long without a saddle?”  
Hiccup nodded and stretched, “We should, and don’t worry about the saddle, I won’t let you fall, and the leathers will keep my scales from hurting you.”  
Astrid nodded, and the two of them walked out into the open, Astrid having her pack on her back ready to go. “So…” She said, “You are really going to fly me?”  
Hiccup leaned a little to allow her to mount, and she sighed and got on, before taking off Hiccup turned his head back to look at her, “Is it awkward for you to ride on my back?”  
Astrid seemed to think for a minute, before saying, “Yes, and no. I want to talk about this when we are on that island you spoke of, when we can speak openly without the other dragons around.”  
Hiccup nodded, and turned back forward, “Hold on Astrid, you are about to experience flying as you never have before.”  
{Astrid POV}  
I admit it, I was screaming, close to wetting myself, and more terrified than I had ever been before. But at the same time, I was ecstatic, and had never felt so alive. Hiccup had started by jumping, much higher than I expected, and in two flaps he was shooting up into the sky with a speed I had never even seen before. It felt like forever before he leveled out at the rise, and I could finally breathe. After calming enough not to do my very best to strangle my best friend, I hesitantly sat up to look around, we were already above the level of the clouds, and higher up than I had ever flown before.   
Hiccup turned his head to me and gave me a gummy smile, making me giggle and relax, I spoke back to him in Dragonease, “this is amazing Hiccup!” He nodded, and turned back forward, “How long is the flight?”  
“Six hours by nadder,” He said back, “Since you don’t have a saddle, we’ll aim for that and when we get there, we can start figuring things out.”  
At this point, I really didn’t care, it could be all day, as long as I was flying, and I was with Hiccup, I could do anything, even though being a dragon troubled me, I knew I could eventually accept it, as long as Hiccup helped he always knew how to get through to me, and make sure I felt safe.  
{Standard POV}  
It was a little closer to seven hours when the island came into view, Hiccup had to slow down after Astrid almost slipped off his back, she was comfortable, but had nothing to grip onto when a gust hit them from the side. So with the slower speed, it took them a little longer to get there. When they touched down on the sand, Hiccup stumbling slightly from the first long flight he had ever taken, with a passenger no less, Astrid slipped off, and laid out facing the sun.   
Hiccup plopped down on his front, looking pathetically tired and slightly like a giant lazy cat. Astrid looked at him and giggled, causing him to glare at her, “Come on, you look hilarious Hic,” He shook his head, and just ignored her, making her giggle more.   
Finally, they had rested a little, and looked at the island they had come to. It was only a quarter of the size that their previous island was, but just over the hill was a small cabin, and there was plenty of wildlife on the island that had somehow managed to flourish, even with the small area of woodland that seemed to cover all but the beach of the island.   
“How long has it been since you’ve been here?” Astrid asked, as they looked across the entrance of the forest.   
“About three years, dad couldn’t travel once he got sick,” He nodded to the cabin that was just visible, “There should be some old cloths in there, they wont fit me now, but you are about the size I was then. So you can wear those until we figure out if the transformation itself ruins clothes or if it was the spell that did it.”  
Astrid blushed a little at the thought of wearing Hiccup’s old clothes, she had borrowed his sweaters multiple times, but that was it. But she nodded, “Alright, should we go to the cabin?”  
Hiccup nodded, and started walking that way, “It is probably better that I make sure my uncle is nowhere around first, stay here for a moment.” After a nod from her, he launched into the air, and headed to the cabin, it seemed well deserted, so he came back and the two of them walked to the cabin.  
Astrid opened the unlocked door, and walked inside. It was a one room cabin, it had a couple of beds on one side of the room, a fireplace, and a kitchen that somehow had running water, when she asked Hiccup, he just shrugged, “I used it as a summer project when I was thirteen, remember the report I did that fall?” Astrid nodded. “I got all that information building a plumbing system for this house with Dad.”  
Astrid smiled, knowing how much Hiccup and his father worked together, even though they had very little in common interest wise, they always made an effort to find something to do together. It always impressed her how they were able to get along.   
She found a dresser that had a few drawers of clothes, she opened one and found the clothes that Hiccup had been talking about, tan pants, and green shirts. She pulled out a single set, including a pair of boxers, and quickly changed. Hiccup was right, she didn’t want her clothes ripping up, she only had a couple of sets of extra clothing.  
When she walked out she saw Hiccup sitting like a guardian statue, looking out into the vast ocean. She came up behind him, and wondered what he was thinking about, at this point, he could have been thinking about dragons, or his father, or something else entirely, that was one think no one could ever predict about him.   
“I always planned on bringing you here someday,” He said finally, “Dad said it was the best place to share with someone you care about. I thought we could come here on vacation, the first leave we would get from DFSU, I was going to show you this place and the peace it can bring.” He looked back at her, his emerald eyes filled with sadness. “I’m sorry that it is because of all this that we are here.”  
Astrid shook her head and walked over to him, reaching up to cup his head in her hands, “Hiccup, there is nothing to be sorry for, you didn’t do this.”  
Hiccup sighed, “But I feel you got the short end of this Astrid, you have family, a life outside of dragons. This, this is a dream come true for me, I get to know everything about dragons, and be one of them, and I even got lucky enough to have my best friend with me.” He turned back to the ocean, “But you have a family you will outlive, and a dragon form you don’t want, with a curse you can’t get rid of. And the only person you can share it with is me, so I’m sorry, if I could, I would cure you, and take you home, but I can’t.”  
Astrid just stood there stunned, she had only heard him so sad when his father had died, this was not the Hiccup she wanted to see. And she had a feeling that she knew how to prove to him what she wanted to say to him.   
She took a deep breath and stepped back from him, before remembering his words, It’s a matter of will power, and understanding, you have to believe that you will change, and will it to happen. The same can be said if you want to become a dragon again, you simply believe that it will happen, then will it to become reality. She closed her eyes and focused on a fact she had been trying to come to terms with, that she was a dragon. She felt it inside, her dragon side, it seemed pissed at her, and she kinda had a feeling that her dragon side had her attitude, and was just as angry when she was ignored.   
She definitely had the belief down, and so, after another large breath, she willed herself to change. She felt it happen far more quickly than her change into a human, and suddenly, she was again a dragon. This time however, she felt far more comfortable, Hiccup had been right, yet again, she just needed to know that she could change back into a human. She walked around Hiccup and sat up like he was, now looking into his surprised eyes. “Astrid?” He asked her.   
“I’m going to say this once Haddock, so please listen,” Astrid said, her voice snapping his attention to her. “First off, this in NOT your fault, so don’t try to take the blame like you always do.” He gulped, but nodded, “Good, now, I don’t have only you to share the rest of my life with, I have YOU to share the rest of my life with. So no, I didn’t get the short end of the stick, to be honest, I got you.”  
Hiccup sat there for a moment, then said quietly, “Astrid…”  
She shook her head, “Nope, enough of this back and forth of awkwardness, I’m tired of it, and honestly we are both far too good of friends for it to have taken us this long.” She stepped forward, and practically stuck her face in his, “It took you threatening Gothi for me to realize I have been afraid for nothing, now I’m gonna tell you this so that we can stop hiding behind an unspoken truth, I like you,” She shook her uhead, “No, that’s not true, I love you, I have for years.” Hiccup’s eyes widened, “Now, I know, you’re shocked, I was too when you spoke to Gothi like that for me, but I don’t need words to know you love me back, so here’s the deal Haddock, no more pity, no more apologizing for something that wasn’t your fault. And from now on, you don’t protect me as your best friend, you protect me as your girlfriend,” She paused, “Or mate if you prefer that term.”   
Hiccup was sitting there with a stunned, and almost blank look on his face, and Astrid was almost worried, he wasn’t reacting at all, until suddenly life returned to his eyes, and they seemed to glow. The next moment, he had quickly pushed his forehead against hers. “I don’t care what you call it Astrid,” He said quietly, “I’ve been yours since the moment I met you.”  
Astrid’s heart stopped racing, and she pushed her forehead against his, “Good, because I’m not letting you go, now,” She pulled away slightly, it was odd to her, that motion, it felt so natural to her, she had never done that before, but it was just, right. She looked at him, “I guess we should start getting this dragon thing down so that we can go flying together.”   
Hiccup grinned, that toothless grin, “Well, since you are already shifted, I guess we can start with eating.”


End file.
